What does Luka Doncic's trade to the Los Angeles Lakers mean for him? And for Anthony Davis?
We continue analyzing one of the biggest bombshells in NBA history, focusing on the two main players involved
According to sources close to the NBA, Luka Doncic found out that he had been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before the news reached the media. The same shockwave reverberated throughout the league after the 25-year-old superstar was traded less than eight months after leading the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals at the peak of his career.
When NBA executives were asked which player they would start a franchise with, the two most common names were Victor Wembanyama and Doncic. However, Dallas no longer felt the same way about Doncic, a perennial MVP candidate and five-time All-NBA First Team member, as the cornerstone of their franchise.
Doncic was expected to become the league's highest-paid player and receive a five-year, $345 million contract extension this summer. The Slovenian was comfortable in Dallas. However, after the trade, he is no longer eligible for the supermax contract with the Lakers. Doncic is currently earning $43 million this season, will make $46 million for the 2025-26 season, and has a player option worth nearly $49 million for the 2026-27 season.
Now, Doncic heads to the Lakers, where he will reunite with his former teammate at the Mavericks and close friend Dorian Finney-Smith, and his former assistant coach Greg St. Jean, who was also in Dallas. Doncic will team up with one of his idols, LeBron James, who can help him improve his physique, as evidenced by his game at 40 years old, and take over from James as the new face of the Lakers franchise and potentially become one of the faces, if not the face, of the NBA during his time in the Los Angeles market.
Anthony Davis' Situation
Anthony Davis asked the Lakers to acquire a center to pair with him during an interview with ESPN. He will now fulfill his wish to play not alongside one, but two starting centers, with Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively in the frontcourt of the Dallas Mavericks. AD, a three-time NBA blocks leader and five-time member of the All-Defensive Team, has always preferred playing power forward and will form an intimidating defensive frontcourt with Lively and Gafford, who can block, intimidate, rebound, and switch defensively to take on the smaller players on the perimeter.
Despite battling injuries at times during his career, Davis has been healthy since the start of the 2023-24 season, before recently suffering an abdominal muscle strain. The nine-time All-Star now reunites with Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd, an assistant coach, and Jared Dudley, a former teammate, all of whom won the NBA championship in 2020 with the Lakers. Davis also has a close relationship with Mavericks executive Nico Harrison, dating back to Harrison's days with Nike. Davis is owed $229.85 million through the 2027-28 season, which includes a player option.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, ¿Qué significa para Luka Doncic su traspaso a Los Angeles Lakers? ¿Y para Anthony Davis?
